Microsoft’s numbers once again suggest there are fewer active Windows users than we think

Microsoft has updated their developer portal with some new Windows operating system market share numbers.

The numbers are presumably the most accurate available and show that worldwide, in terms of active devices, Windows 10 is now clearly ahead of Windows 7, in February 2018 having 48% market share vs 39% for Windows 7. The numbers are notably not a match for Statcounter or Netmarketshare.

The numbers also, however, let us work out the actual installed base of Microsoft’s desktop operating system.

In November 2017 Microsoft said there were 600 million active Windows 10 users. According to Microsoft’s own data at the time Windows 10 had 45% market share, meaning the actual installed base for all versions of Windows is 600 million/0.45 = 1.33 billion Windows users, down from the older number of 1.5 billion users.

A reduction in the number of active users is to be expected of course, given that new computer users are increasingly starting and staying on mobile. Microsoft is, however, trying to fight the trend by making Windows more versatile and adopting much of the ease of use features users are used to from mobile operating systems.

It remains to be seen however if the OS has a future without a mobile telephony presence, but hopefully, Microsoft will one day re-enter the market with another attempt at Windows on the phone.